Wining and dining at Antibes

It’s been a while since our last visit at Antibes. This weekend, my parents had a couple of visitors from far-away lands, so we decided to pop over for a lunch/dinner (the original idea was to have a late lunch – but it turned out to be a not-so early dinner in the end). There were Gunnveig (of Stockholm, Sweden), Karita (of Turku, Finland), as well as the trio who already featured on this blog two weekends ago: Tutta, Marjukka and Antero.


On the menu – my dad’s speciality filet mignon with a creamy persillade sauce. The food was great, the wine tasty, and the conversation lively – a typical meal at the Turtiainen Antibes residence then!

These pensioneers surely don't show their age - I'm sure they kept partying on into the morning hours like during the good old days. When we were kids, me and my brother we used to complain that my parents and their friends (often Karita and Gunnveig were part of the gang) were too noisy, and prevented us from getting any sleep!

Holiday photo soiree at Maite's

It’s only been a couple of weeks since our return from Mexico and the US of A, but it already feels like absolute ages since. So we decided to organize a photo session to revive our memories. Actually, I think it was more of an excuse to do what we like doing (or I like doing at least): drink, eat and chat. (they don’t call me como todo, tomo todo for nothing, you know!). Maite (who also did a Mexico/US trip with Marie a couple of years back) kindly offered to host the occasion, Marie supplied the photos, and we supplied some wine. Food and more drink was supplied by other participants.

Apart from the hardy travelers, the other usual suspects also came along: Antoine, Claire and their children, Guillaume as well as Julie and Aurelien. And we also got to meet Maite’s Italian boyfriend (too bad I only found out about him being Italian afterwards – what a missed opportunity to practice my Italian). We even had JayJay present virtually for some time all the way across the Atlantic – thanks god for Skype eh?

It was, as always, a great night. Things kicked off in promosing fashion with some arm-wrestling (I struggled heroically but lost to Hector and Mathilde, but just beat Celian - and thing only got better from then on.

The idea was, I found out eventually, for me to provide the commentary for the slide show together with Celian (I think the work split was supposed to be that he talks about the wild life and me about the “other stuff” – like drinking tequila and eating a lot). In the end, we got hit by a bit of stage fright though, so Marie did most of the commentary. A lot of pizza was consumed (I did my best to keep up my reputation, but struggled a bit towards the end, I have to admit), and a rather respectable amount of tequila as well. I found a fellow drinker in Maite’s daughter’s boyfriend, who has Polish origin (one can always trust the Polish not to, as we say in Swedish, “spit in the glass”).

All in all, a great time was had by everybody, then! And my head wasn’t even hurting THAT badly the next day… Thanks for Maite for another great party!

Surprise birthday weekend at the Queyras

We have a bit of a tradition, me and Mathilde, of organizing “surprise birthday weekends” for one another (last year Mathilde took me to the lovely isle of Porquerolles, whereas I took Mathilde to the Cevennes). I had a few options for where Mathilde might be taking me this time around spinning in my head (perhaps skiing in Limone, a weekend in Turin, or perhaps a couple of days in Lisbon?). However, she completely took me by surprise this time... Turns out we were heading to a rather unknown part of the Alps known as the Queyras.

We headed out Friday evening, making our way towards Gap, which is not far from the Queyras (it was quite a drive, so we decided to stop at Gap). We had a very romantic start to the weekend with take-away dinner at McDonald’s (we were too nackered to bother with a restaurant), and watching Alice in Wonderland in bed.

The next day, we hit the road early, driving up the Durance valley towards the Queyras valley. Like I said, the Queyras is not a very famous part of the Alps (I’d never heard about it), quite unjustly so – the landscapes here are absolutely magnificent (and we’re not talking foothills either – the highest peak in the Queyras reaches up to a height of 3385 meters). But perhaps that’s a good thing – the place is relatively untouched by tourism. Our scenic drive took us past the rather stunningly located Chateau-Queyras. As the name hints, the village is dominated by a castle, overlooking the valley. It seemed very much like a castle that I would like – unfortunately it was closed though.

We continued our drive along narrow mountain rounds, making our way to our destination – Saint Veran. Yes, Saint-Véran, that would be where we live in Cagnes-sur-Mer as well, funny that. There is another peculiarity with Saint-Véran – it is the highest altitude village/commune in Europe, apparently (although a quick peek on Wikipedia suggests that it’s the highest commune in France – not Europe). Altitude-related controversy aside, I think Mathilde made pretty much the perfect choice for a surprise weekend – the village is a real gem of a place. The architecture is very harmonious and traditional, and unlike other places in the Alps, it’s not overrun by tourists (sure, Saint-Véran has its fair share as well, but they do not overwhelm the place). The views from the village over the valley are rather stunning as well...

After checking into our lovely hotel (a most charming big log chalet, where we had a rather roomy and a very cozy little apartment for the weekend), and a short exploratory walk around the village, we decided to hike some raquettes for the afternoon. There are ski slopes as well, but we decided to explore those the next day. After a very good lunch in one of the local eateries (the place reminded us a bit of the Yeneka guesthouse where we stayed in Mexico – with its walls covered in Alpine gadgets and memorabilia), we set out for our hike. Unfortunately the tourist office was closed for lunch, so we had to set out without a map, with the vague instructions about where the walk started. We found the start of the hike, and made our way along the ski tracks. Quite soon, we lost sight of any tracks, and decided to follow the ski piste, since we didn’t have any better ideas. Bad idea – we were basically walking the opposite way up a red ski slope – so rather hard walk! We carried on for a bit, until we decided that we were on the wrong tracks...

And then came to the realization that walking down a steep downhill slope is actually a REAL pain with raquettes. Oh well, at least it was very good exercise. And there’s no denying the landscapes are absolutely magnificent.

After a VERY well deserved vin chaud in one of the bars in town, we decided to do a bit more hiking, down to the Bois des Amoureux. Very promising name – but the walk itself was a wee bit disappointing. The walk followed the ski tracks again, so it wasn’t really anything to write home about. But anyway, we were very happy, if tired, after a rather active day. Our energy levels were rather low though, and decided to have dinner at the hotel. Excellent choice – the food was tops (apart from the dessert, which was a bit of a disappointment. We crashed out pretty much straight away after dinner, tired but happy ;)




The next morning, ‘twas ski time. Saint-Véran is quite a small ski station, but perfectly adequate since we had just one day to explore the slopes. And actually, there is one big bonus, compared to other ski stations in the Alps. Namely, they are not overrun by people. Very rarely have I shared such magnificent slopes with so few people. Like I said, there aren’t that many runs, but the height difference from the top (~2800 meters) to Saint-Veran is still pretty significant (800 meters), and even more significant down to nearby Molines en Queyras. And conditions were pretty much perfect as well, with the sun shining and blue skies, making our day of skiing pretty much perfect.

We finished our superb day with another dinner at the hotel restaurant. This time we decided to go for a real Alpine speciality – Raclette. The idea of raclette (as the name implies – it’s derived from the French word for scrape) is to mount a large chunk of cheese onto a special device, which melts the cheese. The idea is then to scrape off the molten cheese onto a plate of other delicacies (charcuterie, potatoes, salad, that sort of thing). It’s a real culinary experience anybody going to the French Alps should try out. We had a great time – and were quite full after the experience as well. Nice wine, too :) By the time we finished dinner, we were once more completely nackered, and happy to find our beds…

The next day, it was unfortunately time to leave lovely Saint-Véran and our equally lovely hotel, after two pretty much perfect days. Our original plan had been to drive back the direct route, though the Mercantour, down to Cagnes, but that turned out to be impossible – some parts of the roads are still closed due to the amount of snow.

So we basically drove back the way we came. We did make a couple of stops on the way though. The first one was at Guillestre, where the biggest market of the Queyras was talking place (big it may be, but our Cagnes one is bigger I reckon, we did buy some local apples though). We also made a short stop at Gap (it is, after all, one of the main towns in the region), which was nothing to write home about either (the old town was pleasant, but not particularly old). We finally stopped at Sisteron for lunch. Sisteron, with its famous citadel, is a place we’ve wanted to visit for a while, and this was an ample opportunity to do just that. After a very nice stroll through the old town (which is much more “Provencal” than “Alpine” – kind of normal since we were now in the Alpes des Haute Provence department), we stopped for a pleasant lunch at almost the first open eatery we could find (our hunger was seriously starting to get to us). Glass of rose, some lamb meat, sunshine, nice views over the old town, not much else one could ask for, eh? Our appetites sated, we drove up to the citadel. Much to our disappointment, it was closed to visitors. Still, the views over the town were well worth the short drive up there.

That brought an end to a rather fantastic surprise birthday weekend. Merci, cherie :)

Early birthday bash

That time of the year again, when one is reminded of one’s age… Well, my birthday is actually on Saint Paddy’s day, but since it’s in the middle of the week, we figured we’d advance the celebration activities to the weekend before.

My cousin Eeva, together with her husband Henkka and little Veeti, were also visiting this weekend, staying at my parents’ place in Antibes. Looks like my parents decided to introduce their visitors to “real French life on the Riviera” by taking them along for their weekly Petanque session. Yep, that’s right, a bunch of Finnish pensioners meet up every Saturday (and Wednesday as well, I believe) for a bit of petanque action (sans pastis though – so kind of cheating if you ask me). So I figured I’d join them this time – after all, I’ve not had a go at Petanque so far. It was all good fun, the basic principle is quite similar to curling, except that the equipment and environment is a bit different. I didn’t contribute much to my teams (composed of my dad, myself and Henkka) our eventual victory, except towards the end, when I even clinched a couple of rounds for our team.

In the evening, the plan was to meet up in Nice, for a beleaguered celebration of me getting yet older. I had received the Pelican Station for the occasion – not one of the fanciest restaurants in Nice, but a suitable place to handle our group of 20+ people. We had a nice mix of people, roughly divided into 3 groups – teachers from CIV & spouses (Julie, Aurelien, Marie, Valerie, Gilles, Claire and Antoine with their families), Finns (Mikko, Eevis, Henkka, Henna, Aki & Petri) and “business lunch/engineers friends” (Ismael, Sarah, Youcef, Naim, Steve). I think that’s everybody ;-).

The proceedings went rather well; the restaurant was able to handle our group pretty well (apart from some fiddling about with the bill). I got some superb presents – Finnish chocolate, a nice shirt, a wine taster set, a bottle of 18 years old Highland Park (now that's what I call vintage whisky!), a “Windows for dummies” book (insider joke – cheers Ismael ;) ) and a really cool tee-shirt (another insider joke – “Como todo, tomo todo, ago todo”)! No complaints about the food either – even if it wasn’t exactly high gastronomy (but what do I care, I am, after all, Mr. “Como Todo”).

After the meal the hardy ones from the group headed on for a couple of drinks in Place Massena. We then had the great honor to be chauffeured back to Cagnes-sur-Mer in Aurelien’s Mini (the old classic version, not the new BMW-powered one). Much to my surprise, I fit rather well on the front seat (even better than in my own beemer).

The next day, we were invited over to Tutta’s place for coffee ‘n cakes (that great Finnish institution). Marjukka, Tutta’s globetrotting sister (I believe they’ve lived in the US, Singapore, Canada and Germany, at least), and her husband Antero were also visiting. Must be about 20 years since I’ve seen them the last time... And we finally got to visit little Veeti as well, cute little boy!

That brought an end to a rather busy weekend!

The Grand Finale: San Francisco

The last leg of our so far most wonderful holiday was San Francisco. After a timely departure (for once...) from San Diego airport, we landed in San Francisco, rather late in the evening. By the time we got to our hotel (a rather modest motel located on Lombard street), it was time to hit the sack, so no San Francisco exploration for us yet.

The next morning, we started the day with a VERY American breakfast at Mel’s diner. Mel’s diner is about as American as a place can get, serving pan cakes, hash browns and the like in an interior covered with old photos, juke boxes etc. We simply loved the place – even though I suppose it could be described as a bit of a tourist trap as well… After this rather filling brekkie, we jumped on the bus and headed downtown (one thing to say is that the public transport in San Francisco is quite impressive – quite un-American, one might say).

After arming ourselves with maps, leaflets etc. at the main tourist office (located near that famous end stop of the Powel street cable car – the one that goes down to Fisherman’s Wharf), it was time to head back out into the sticks, since Gilles and Valerie had a rendez-vous at a French school (this needs a bit of elaboration – one of the reasons for our trip here is that they are looking to relocate to San Francisco. Valerie already had a post more or less confirmed, but Gilles was still looking). Meanwhile, we headed out with Celian and Hector to the nearby Golden Gate Park to check out some of the local wild life. We had a very good time actually, checking out the various birds and a couple of very friendly squirrels – in spite of the rain.

A while later, rendez-vous at Starbuck’s (have to do one of those as well, since we are in the US of A, after all!) for some excellent news. Turns out that Gilles had managed to get himself recruited as well! So, looks like one family moving to California then come next summer… (a plan for another trip to the US was already forming in our heads!).

Gilles and Valerie had some admin stuff to take care of in the afternoon, so me and Mathilde decided to head downtown for a bit of tourist action. We decided to start with another US institution, the Cheesecake factory. Cheesecake factory takes its roots back all the way to the 40’s, and is a chain of family restaurants, which has apparently been voted as the “worst family restaurant in the US” due to their large portion sizes. Obviously, we loved it :).

To burn of some of those calories, we decided to hike down to Fisherman’s Wharf from Union square. On the map, it doesn’t look too far away, but walking in San Francisco is pretty hard work actually, due to the famous up ‘n down profile of the city. Well, as they say, if it doesn’t kill ya, it’ll make ya stronger, right? We crossed through China town, which was pretty cool and very “authentic” indeed (reminded me a bit of a bigger version of London’s China town).



We actually arrived at Pier 39, from where we walked towards Fisherman’s Wharf, where we were meeting Gilles, Valerie ‘n the boyz. Fisherman’s wharf is of course one of the most famous touristy attractions at San Francisco, and it shows. It gives new definition to the word “tourist trap”. But there is one really cool place in Fisherman’s Wharf, at least - Musée Mécanique. It’s basically a warehouse where they have lovingly restored old coin-operated mechanical musical instruments and antique arcade machines. I absolutely loved the place, it kind of reminded me of the machines they used to have on display in Brighton pier and Covent Garden in London. Apart from that, I wasn’t too enamored by Fisherman’s Wharf, I have to say. We struggled a bit to find a place for dinner, eventually finding ourselves in a decent Italian eatery in North Beach.

The next day, me and Mathilde started the day by making our way to Haight & Ashbury (while Gillles, Valerie & co. had more “administrative stuff” to take care of). This part of town is where the hippie movement was at its strongest in San Francisco. These days, it’s a very posh and upmarket part of town (although there are plenty of quirky shops, bars and restaurants which hark back to the crazy old days…). It’s definitely a very beautiful part of San Francisco, with its beautiful Victorian wooden houses San Francisco is so known for. Now it looks so upmarket, it’s kind of hard to imagine the place being overran by hippies – mind you I suppose a lot of things change in 30-40 years. We passed by houses where Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead had staid, to mention a couple of landmarks – but mostly we were impressed by the pretty architecture and the cool shops.

From Haight, we made our way to another very well known district of San Francisco, Castro. Castro, with it’s rainbow flags, is of course the gay district of San Francisco. This is where that famous dude Harvey Milk (who was the first elected public official in California – Gus Van Sant made a movie about his life recently) lived and worked. It’s a pretty trendy neighborhood these days, with trendy shops, bars and restaurants to be seen everywhere, but there is still an “alternative feel” to the place (as showcased by for example a window full of, how should I say it, “very masculine action figures” in one window on the main street).

From the Castro, we made our way to the Mission district, which is the Hispanic part of San Francisco. We only had time for a quick walk around Mission, since we had a lunch date to attend to. We did have time to check out the main attraction in the Mission district though, which is the graffiti paintings that adorn a lot of the buildings in this part of time. And this is pretty cool and opinionated graffiti – definitely art in its own right.


We met up for lunch in the South of Market street district, which is a kind of non-descript area of San Francisco (in a city of very distinct ‘hoods). But the restaurant was very nice indeed – even if the prices were a wee bit steep. After lunch, Gilles and Valerie had a bit of time before their next school-related rendez-vous, so we decided to head up to Telegraph hill, where Coit Tower is located. Coit Tower is where you probably get the best views over San Francisco – the financial district (with its sky-scrapers), the Bay bridge, Fisherman’s Wharf, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate are all well in sight.

We still had a couple of hours of daylight left, so we decided to have a walk around Russian Hill. The main motivation was of course to check out the hairpin bendy bit of Lombard street – perhaps one of the most stretches of road in the world? So, is it worth all the fuss? I guess you can judge yourself from the photo ? It is quite a special bit of road, and the views from the top are quite amazing. Russian hill in general is pretty swanky as well – definitely for people with deep pockets. This part of town is particularly hilly, so walking around Russian hill is definitely a good way to loose weight (no wonder San Franciscans are so slim).

We had a dinner rendez-vous with the gang in a real San Francisco institution – the Taddich Grill later on, but had a bit of time on our hands, so strolled around for a bit more in Chinatown before heading down to the financial district, where the restaurant was located. The Taddich grill was pretty cool – they have a very nice bar where you can wait for your table at. The place has a very real buzz to it – very American I suppose. The clientele seemed to be mostly business men, working in the financial district, I suppose. The food was great – definitely one of the best steaks I’ve had for quite a while.

Me and Gillles finished off the day by picking up Marie at the airport (she had decided to spend a couple of extra days with JayJay in San Diego, rather than coming along with us), and then hitting our beds, satisfied after another great day in the US of A…

The next day, it was time to say bye bye to the rest of the gang, who were heading back to old Europe, after another rather filling breakfast at our favorite diner (that’s right - Mel’s of course!). Me and Mathilde decided to spend our last day checking out what is I guess THE landmark of San Francisco, the Golden Gate. And a beautiful bridge it is indeed. After admiring this masterpiece of bridge building and engineering for a good while (and naturally taking quite a few photos in the process), we decided to cross by foot, towards Marin county and Sausalito. There are pretty nice views from the bridge towards Alcatraz and the city, so it’s a pretty nice hike actually.

After checking out Golden Gate, we still had a couple of hours to kill, so after a tasty burger lunch in Cow Hollow (where our hotel was located), we walked around a bit in Pacific Heights (another rather fancy neighbour hood of San Francisco with pretty Victorian Houses), before making our way to the airport, sad to leave this wonderful city…

All in all, San Francisco definitely caught our fancy – certainly the “urban highlight” of our trip (I like San Diego, but prefer San Francisco). There’s history, great food, loads to see and people are friendly. And somewhat unusually for the US, it’s very easy to explore on foot. Definitely has a European feel to it as – although at the same time it is distinctly American. I’ve already been twice – and would definitely be happy to visit again!

Across the border to San Diego

The next stop on our trip was Tijuana, to where we were flying from San Jose. The plan was then to take the air line shuttle bus across the border to San Diego, in the US of A. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite pan out as planned… Our flight into Tijuana was delayed, so we missed our pre-booked shuttle bus. And turns out we’d have had to wait for about 2 and a half hours for the next one. So we decided to cut our losses and take the local bus to the border instead. It was a bit of an off-putting experience, as we were the only gringos in the bus, and the guy who was explaining how to deal with the border crossing only spoke Spanish.

In the end, the crossing was very quick, though (we had heard stories of 2-hour waits, so were expecting the worst). The trick is – cross by foot. The car queues were rather long…

We then took the trolley car down to downtown San Diego, where the youth hostel we were staying the first night at was located. The youth hostel, Lucky D’s, was really cool actually, with a lot of personality. We opted out of the hostel party though, and crashed out, happy to catch a bit of sleep after a long day… Anyway, dear reader, should you ever find yourself in San Diego and require budget accommodation, look no further than Lucky D’s.

The next day, the plan was to explore San Diego downtown, and then meet a couple of friends for lunch. We started our walk by heading to the Gaslamp District, a few blocks of old buildings, which were revamped in the 90’s, and now house mostly bars, restaurants and cafes. It’s a pretty nice place to walk around, although it does have that American “fake historic” feel to it, definitely. After a quick tour of shopping at Horton Plaza (the main shopping mall in downtown), we headed out to Embarcadero, the seaside walk by San Diego harbor. We started our walk by the historic sail ship the Berkeley (which houses the maritime museum), and made our way down to the Midway, a big aircraft carrier which has also been turned into a museum (San Diego has a very strong naval presence – after all, Top Gun was filmed here!). From there we carried on to Seaport village, which is NOT a traditional fishing village. Rather, it’s a collection of tourist shops, some of them vaguely fishing/sea related. But I did manage to acquire a much-needed memory card for my camera there, at least ;-)

Then it was time for lunch –we had rendezvous with two friends of mine, Stephane and Marko, at a nice seaside restaurant by the Midway. Marko is an old Swedish-Finnish colleague of mine from Southwood, and Stephane is also a good friend of ours from our years in the UK (he also used to be one of my most reliable pub companions in the UK, during my numerous work-related trips to the misty isle). They have both taken the decision, like us, to emigrate to warmer climates… They were both accompanied by ladies, whose names I have regretfully forgotten. It was all great fun, great catching up with both Marko and Stephane. And the fish was very decent as well.

For the afternoon, we headed down to Balboa Park with Stephane, Balboa Park being the main touristy attraction of San Diego, arguably. It’s a pretty nice place to stroll around, with its tasteful fake-historic buildings, most of which house museums. Unfortunately the international houses I enjoyed visiting last time around were closed this time around. After our park visit, we picked up our rental car at the airport, and headed back to Stephane’s place, where we were staying the next couple of nights. The evening was pretty relaxed catching up, accompanied by a couple of tasty pizzas, some good wine and a couple of real movie classics (Scott Pilgrim Vs. the world and Machete, and a somewhat more rubbish action movie to finish off – sorry Stephane I know you disagree with me on that one ;-) ).




The next day, the plan was to do a bit of a mini-SoCal road trip. We started off with a “relatively copious” breakfast at La Jolla, and then headed off to explore the Californian coastline. We started off with what was maybe my favorite San Diego spot on my last visit, Torrey Pines Natural reserve (not the golf course, nah…). And it was just as pleasant this time – we really enjoyed hiking around the picturesque ochre colored cliffs. We walked back to the car along the beach, breathing in the fresh sea air and the taking in the scenery… From there we carried on up the coastline, passing through Del Mar and Solona beach, before finally stopping by at Cardiff-by-the-sea for a nice, filling sandwich lunch.

From there we headed westwards, towards the mountains of deserts located just outside San Diego – our destination was Julian. Julian is an “authentic, historic gold mining town”, apparently. Historic it is (I checked Wikipedia), but authentic, hmmm… Basically, it’s a bit of a tourist trap. But somehow the place is so ridiculously, unselfconsciously tacky, that you just gotta love the place. I think in any country other than the US, I would’ve found the place really annoying. Here, I found it quite charming actually. We did find a very nice bookshop there, and also managed to purchase one of the famous Julian apple pies – the original ones, of course!

For the evening, the plan was to reunite with our travelling companions from Mexico, who were just arriving at La Jolla that evening. The plan was to meet up for dinner near their hotel – at a Mexican restaurant (where else!?). Stephane, and another good friend of ours from the UK (and my current colleague), Alex, also managed to join us. The reunion was a very happy one, as we got to hear their stories of whale watching in Magdalena bay (which we’d missed out on since our ways parted at that point). Good to catch up with Alex as well, who still seems to be very much enjoying life in SoCal.

The next day, the main plan was for the teachers in our group to visit the French school at La Jolla, so I drove Mathilde up there, while I took up child-watching duties, making sure Celian and Hector didn’t get up to too much mischief. We started off by checking out the rather impressive views over San Diego and La Jolla from near the school (it’s located on a hill, so the views are great), and then headed down to the beach, to check out some of the local wildlife (La Jolla has a colony of seals). Later we were rejoined by the others… After chilling out at the beach a bit, we decided to head down to Pacific Beach for lunch.

P.B. is THE place for surfers in San Diego. The place has a bit of a ran-down look to it, but we liked the laid-back feel of the place, and of course the beach here is fantastic. Quite a different seaside community than nearby La Jolla. After a pleasant lunch at a proper surfer lunch shack, we headed back to La Jolla, to prepare for our departure from San Diego. We did have time to go and check out the famous seal colony before leaving, though. It was quite an entertainment spectacle (of the best kind – completely natural) as the seals played with each others on the beach, in spite (or because of?) the numerous spectators. I can tell you, I put my telephoto lens to good use…

And then it was time to make our way to the airport, from where we were carrying on to San Francisco…